Aztec Gold (8 page)

Cynthia jammed her hands on her hips and walked right up to them so they had no choice but to face her. “And wait a day or two for the cavalry? The longer we delay, the more likely either Dani or David end up dead.”

Silence followed her statement, making it clear to her that it was a useless battle to get their assistance. Better Dani or David dead than them, they probably thought.

“
Pendejos
,” Hernandez muttered beneath his breath and stood, but as before, he wavered and Cynthia slipped beneath his arm to steady him.

“Follow me back to Rafe’s. We’ll decide what to do in the morning,” she said, although she had already made her decision.

Hernandez was too physically weak to go whereas the other two were just too weak-willed. She recalled Gardner’s comments about them being all false bravado and realized that their prior exploits had probably never entailed any serious threats to their lives. They weren’t prepared to handle the situation they were facing.

And she was? she wondered. But the answer came quickly.

She had done nothing while her parents were being hacked to death. The ever obedient and quiet child hadn’t uttered a word as she had followed her parents’ instructions and hidden.

As Cynthia had grown older she had asked herself more than once if the outcome would have been different had she left her little hole and gone for help. If she might have made a difference if she had come out of hiding and helped her parents fight off their attackers.

It had taken her years to accept that she could not have changed the outcome of that night.

But this time she would not just sit by and wait. This time she could make a difference.

While he waited for Cynthia and her group back at the steam bath, Rafe set up a blanket as a screen to provide him and Cyn some privacy from the other men. He also moved his cot out into the bigger area he had reserved for the men so that Hernandez would have somewhere comfortable to rest and regain his strength after his injuries.

A forage to the nearby livestock area had yielded a few armfuls of sweet-smelling hay that he used together with his sleeping bag to fashion a bed of sorts on the ground for him and Cyn.

When Cyn and her team entered, she helped Hernandez to the cot and silently motioned the other two to take whatever space they could on the floor. Clearly she thought they didn’t deserve better, which made him wonder what they had done to piss her off.

With a glare in his direction, she walked past the screen he had set up, chin tilted upward at a defiant angle.

He spared only a glance at the men settling down for the night, but it was enough to confirm to him what he had already suspected.

Cyn intended to go with him in the morning and none of the other men would be accompanying her.

As he faced his lover, there was no doubt about what she was determined to do, judging from the set lines on her face and the challenge in her posture. Her shoulders were thrown back, head held high the way a bantam rooster might try to fool a larger opponent. Her hands were braced on her hips, legs slightly apart as if ready for action.

He met her gaze directly and in a soft whisper implored, “It’s crazy for you to even think it.”

“She’s got my best friend, but more importantly…I won’t let her take you from me again.”

Of all the arguments she could have made, he hadn’t expected that one. He also knew he couldn’t deny the truth of her statement. Eztli Etalpalli had taken him from her in so many ways. Ways she didn’t really understand and maybe never could. And if she couldn’t come to comprehend who and what he was now…

“I’m not the same man I was before,” he said and to prove it, he held his hands out and called forth the energy floating about the room, directing it to enter his outstretched hands.

The energy danced along his fingertips, eliciting tiny twinkling sparks of lightning.

Cynthia watched the display and shook her head. “You say the
nahual
breathed his life into you—”

“And made me
nahual
. It’s part of the reason I’ve stayed here—to learn what I could with this power. To maybe use this gift to free my brother.”

She walked to him, seemingly without fear of what she was seeing. He held one electrified hand up, as if to warn her to stay away, but she took hold of that hand and twined her fingers with his.

With that physical connection, the sparks flew from him and encircled her hand. She jumped as if shocked and murmured a surprised gasp as his energy traveled into her hand.

He released his hold on the energy quickly, breaking the electrical arc between the two of them.

He had expected her to sever the physical connection also, but instead she closed the distance between them and cradled his cheek with her free hand. “Explain to me what this power means to you and how you can use it to free our friends.”

Cynthia had always been his anchor. The one safe haven to return to after one of his many adventures. He had realized over the months of separation how much he had missed her steady and calming presence. When they had fought, she had accused him of never placing her first. In reality, she had always been his bedrock, only he hadn’t been able to understand that.

He understood it now as he reassuring presence slipped from the hand on his cheek into his heart, soothing the troubled turbulent emotions that had been simmering there for so long. Emotions that had jumped to the forefront once again with the demon’s attack and kidnapping earlier that night.

With a nod, he urged her to return to their makeshift bed and lie with him. She did so, fully dressed given the presence of the men on the other side of the temporary screen. That didn’t stop him from slipping his hand beneath the loose fabric of his shirt that she wore and grasping her waist with his hand.

“Talk to me, Rafe.” His name escaped her lips on a sigh as he caressed the skin of her midriff with the pad of his thumb.

“As I lay dying after Eztli Etalpalli attacked, all I could think about was you. About what a fool I’d been on our last night together.”

She ran her thumb across the smooth line of his cheekbone in a soothing gesture. “But you were right in a way. I had let my fear keep me from doing so many things.”

He covered her hand with his and urged it down to his mouth, where he pressed a kiss into her palm. “And now you’re not afraid anymore?”

A sad smile crept onto her lips. “Still afraid, but willing to take the risk so that we can be together.”

“As am I,
mi amor
. Your words about being first made me angry that night, but I realized the anger was misplaced. I was angry at myself for not being able to explain how important you were to me…are to me.”

Her gaze shimmered with tears of joy and she grasped his hand, brought it to her lips where she kissed it and asked, “So where do we go from here?”

“The power the
nahual
shared with me lets me gather power from the free-floating energies in the space around us. I can also share those energies with others—”

“So you can heal them like he healed you?” she asked.

“In time I can, but not yet,” he said and continued with his explanation. “I can also take a piece of energy from someone or something else and incorporate it into my physical self. By doing so, I can become whatever allowed me such liberties.” He punctuated each detail with the gradual exploration of her body, moving his hand across the dips and valleys of her body. Moving it ever upward until he cradled the heavy weight of her full breast in his hand and gently kneaded the tip of it, his desire for her overriding anything else at the moment.

“So you can also shape-shift?” she asked, placing her hand on his chest. Rubbing her palm across the nub at the center of his pectoral muscle.

He shrugged. “I’ve done it with the help of the
nahual
, but my control still needs improvement.”

“And you plan on using this power that you can barely control to go it alone against Eztli Etalpalli?”

“What choice do I have? Besides, you brought weapons—”

“Which are probably useless against a demon demi-goddess,” she reminded and stroked her hand lazily across his chest.

“‘Only darkness as black as her own can deliver the killing strike,’” he repeated, recalling Cyn’s translation of the parchment the
calpulli
had given him.

“Only darkness and maybe me,” she urged, clearly determined that he would not battle the demon without her.

He stilled the motion of his hand at her breast. “Why you,
mi amor
?”

“There may be some inscriptions within the temple walls. Something that will clue us as to what we need to do to defeat her. I can read those messages better than anyone else here.”

He thought of the great danger they would face, but as he met her gaze, he once again noted the resolve there as well as the strands of fear woven through her bravado.

He wanted to tell her that they might die. Or worse yet, that they might live as Eztli Etalpalli’s slaves and snacks until She decided to finish them off. But in the depths of Cynthia’s dark eyes, he recognized that she understood that and was still willing to take the risk.

This was a different Cynthia than the one he had left back in New York who had favored safety and security above most things. This Cynthia seemed more indomitable. Stronger. Or maybe she had always been that way beneath her calm center and he had never seen it, too wrapped up in his own sense of strength.

Regardless, he liked the change and he intended to explore the new facets she was revealing.

Bending his head, he kissed her until she was breathless and clinging to him. Until he had touched every part of her that he could, memorizing each precious curve and inch of skin. It was only then, with their bodies vibrating with unfulfilled need, that he tucked her close.

As much as he wanted to make love to her again, he could not with the men sleeping barely ten feet away.

“Try to rest. Morning will come sooner than you think.”

She latched on to his arm and twined her legs with his, murmuring as she did so, “Don’t even think of leaving without me.”

***

Early the next morning they held a short memorial service for Rafe’s team member. Jones was laid to rest beside the other dead expedition members in a small cemetery that the villagers had created some distance away from their homes. As Rafe tossed the last shovel of dirt over Jones’s grave, he tried not to lose hope of finding his brother and Dani alive. When Cyn’s gaze met his, he knew she was fighting the same battle as she thought about them.

Hernandez was in worse shape than the night before, his eyes glassy and skin flushed with fever as he sat near the graveside on a small stool they had saved from what remained of their camp. Rogers and Booth stood nearby, eyes averted from Rafe and Cynthia. Their shame hanging over them as Rafe and Cynthia concluded the memorial and then left to head to the temple.

They had salvaged what they could from the supplies Cyn’s team had brought to pack for their trip. Besides the communications gear in case they needed to call the team members who were staying at the village, they were armed to the teeth. Both he and Cynthia had rifles and handguns. A lot of extra ammo. Two large knives, a machete and the gold obsidian dagger with which Cyn had been gifted by the women in the other settlement.

He wondered about the utility of the latter. The blade wasn’t cutting sharp and to thrust through anything of consequence might require a great deal of force. Force and close personal contact.

Getting that near to Eztli Etalpalli would be impossible.

Nor did he want to get that close, he thought as they traipsed through the jungle, each of them silent as they were lost in their thoughts about what was to come.

It was late afternoon by the time they reached the multistory mound of earth beneath which the temple was located. His gut clenched as he recollected the last time he had been here. How when he had dared to confront the demon up close and personal, it had nearly cost him his life.

He paused at the edge of the jungle just before the temple mound, sweat dripping from every pore of his body. His muscles aching from the many swipes of the machete that had been necessary to clear the way here. The trip had taken them several hours even though he calculated that the actual distance from the village was no more than a few miles. The underbrush in the jungle along the way had been thick and difficult to traverse since few dared to venture this close to the demon goddess’s home.

Cyn kneeled beside him while he scanned the area around the temple. Her face was ruddy and sweat stained, as were her clothes. With a deep breath, she slipped off her heavy pack and silently eased it to the ground, painfully aware that stealth was of the utmost necessity.

He admired her perseverance and strength. Not once had she faltered during the trek, keeping up a grueling pace, taking her turns to cut away the tangle before them, but it was clear she needed rest, and truthfully so did he.

He eased off his pack and placed it next to hers. Then he sat down and pulled out his copy of the map to the temple. After reviewing it, he said in a soft whisper, “The entrance isn’t far. Just another thirty yards or so to the east.”

Cyn examined the map and nodded in agreement. “Not far at all, but do we risk going in during daylight?”

Last time Rafe and his team had approached the temple in full light with disastrous results, but Eztli Etalpalli was normally a nocturnal creature. “She’s more active at night, so we might be able to get inside once She leaves.”

“You didn’t enter before?” She wiped at a line of sweat trailing down her face with her forearm. The muscles on her arm were trembling from her earlier exertions.

He shook his head. “The entrance was barred from within. As we attempted to open it, Eztli Etalpalli surged out of the entrance and attacked us.”

Rafe pulled his canteen off his belt and offered it to her. Cyn took it from his grasp, drank down a healthy amount before returning it and asking, “So how do we get in?”

“I’m hoping that the
nahual
powers may help us. If the lock on the door is mystical, I may be able to tap into the supernatural energy and—”

“Use your own power as a key. What if it’s just a plain old rusty lock?”

With a shrug, he replied, “We’ll deal with it then. Why don’t you lean back on your pack and take a short nap? You need the rest and it’ll be a few hours until dusk. I’ll take watch.”

“Wake me in an hour so you can get take a break as well,” she said and did as he had suggested, pillowing her head on the bulk of her backpack, a tangle of low ferns along the jungle floor providing a relatively soft resting place.

He leaned against his own pack, the rifle draped across his thighs. For good measure, he pulled his handgun from the holster at his waist and placed it within easy reach while Cyn napped beside him. As she shifted in her sleep, her soft derriere pressed against his thigh and he laid his hand on her waist, needing the connection with her.

An hour passed too quickly as his mind ran through the many scenarios of what might happen. Cyn didn’t stir the entire time, exhausted as she was from the difficult trip to the temple. He let her sleep on despite her earlier request that he wake her. She had gotten little rest last night and would need her strength for what was to come that evening.

In the interim, it was time to prepare for something he had only done a few times before and only with the assistance of the village
calpulli
who was also the
nahual
who had saved him.

Raising his hands to the sky, he focused on them and the bright sun above. He visualized how the bits of energy floating in the cosmos were being pulled toward him, as if he were some kind of magnet. Little by little, the image in his head became reality. A tiny glimmer began in his palms and then grew to a stronger glow. Suddenly that glow coalesced into balls of energy in each of his palms and a tendril of power snaked out, encircling his wrist.